Thursday, September 10, 2009

Orbit Publishing Upcoming New Releases

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette. Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire — and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?
SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

Professor Richard Helms is the leader of a merry band of scientists and soldiers sent to catalog and explore New Amazon, a planet seemingly determined to attack them at every turn. When they are done cataloguing every detail of this vast, strange, unfamiliar ecosystem, they will burn it to the ground and make it fit for human habitation.

But when the team falls under attack, Helms and his followers are forced to flee into the depths of the New Amazon jungle. Old enemies and petty rivalries surface as they struggle to survive. They must fight for survival– against the planet they are exploring, the robots of the empire, and most of all, against each other.

Palmer burns a new path for science fiction in this gripping, dark tale of man’s place in the universe.